QotD: 1970's Britain

I hear quite a bit of that these days — almost like a local version of East German "ostalgie". Old British friends say to me, well, say what you like about the Seventies — nothing worked; if you wanted to buy a new car, it was as if post-war rationing was still in effect — but all the same life in the village seemed a lot more pleasant back then. There's something to this: the benign side of oppressive statism is often a kind of public restraint. And more than a few folks seem to feel, with the benefit of hindsight, that it's better to have unionized thugs nutting scabs on the picket line than freelance yobs in hideous leisurewear infesting ersatz-American High Streets catering to their every frightful whim from one end to the other. For the modern liberal, this is a new dilemma: an underclass that's too rich.

Mark Steyn, "Complete the revolution!", Daily Telegraph, 2004-05-04